Delicious & Easy Chocolate Cake Recipe

A few Sunday’s ago I was craving some really good chocolate cake. I’m talking about some fabulous tasting made from scratch chocolate cake! So I came upon this highly-rated recipe on AllRecipes.com and made it two Sundays in a row.

In fact, it made an appearance at our Easter dessert too! (No, it wasn’t pretty and pastel, but man it tasted good.) Even just a few days ago, my husband praised it as the best chocolate cake recipe I’ve ever made!

What’s So Great About This Chocolate Cake Recipe?

Well, it’s got simple ingredients and it’s easy to make! What’s there not to love?

If you frequently buy Hershey’s products, you may already be familiar with this chocolate cake recipe. That’s because it’s the recipe that’s on the back of the Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa container! If it’s from Hershey’s you know it’s going to be good.

Baking Tips for This Chocolate Cake Recipe:

I usually keep it super simple and make this cake in a 9×13 baking dish or pan. If you want a more fancy cake, this recipe works well for two 9-inch round cakes.

I like to use the convenient Evenbake Cake Strips when I do a layered cake to be sure the layers bake up evenly and flat. I totally want to try this recipe for a special occasion as a double-layered chocolate cake with the chocolate buttercream frosting and maybe some mini chocolate chips pressed into the sides. Yum!

Want Cupcakes Instead?

You can make about 30 of them with this chocolate cake recipe! Adjust the baking time and you’re good to go. The buttercream frosting is PERFECT for frosting cupcakes, especially with cupcake frosting tips.

Chocolate Cake Topping Tips:

Since this chocolate cake is so moist and flavorful, you can definitely get away with no toppings at all. However, if you are going to go with some sort of topping, chocolate buttercream frosting or whipped cream are definitely yummy options!

If you decide to go the frosting route, we find it really tasty if you warm up the frosting in the microwave for 15 seconds, then pour it over the top of the cake! Try it out!

If you like the berry/chocolate flavor combo, try berries or cherry pie filling with some whipped cream topping on top.

Instructions

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix for 3 minutes with an electric mixer.

Stir in the boiling water by hand until batter is well combined. (The batter will look runny, but have faith... it'll turn out!) Pour evenly into the prepared pans (or pan).

For two 9-inch cakes, bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. For 9x13 cake, bake for 40-45 minutes.

For two 9-inch cakes, cool cake for 10 minutes in the pans, then remove from pans to cool completely.

The cake is delicious by itself, either slightly warm or even chilled. Try it with the chocolate buttercream or whipped cream topping. Add some berries or cherry pie filling with the whipped cream, if desired!

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

With an electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the confectioners' sugar, cocoa powder, milk or cream, salt, and vanilla. Mix together on low speed. Increase to high speed and beat for 3 minutes. If frosting is too thin - add up to 1/2 cup more sugar. If too thick - add another tablespoon of cream or milk. Yield: 2 1/2 cups.

Sorry, but the cake was horrible! I thought it would be light and fluffy, but it turned out dense and hard like Japanese mochi! I shouldn’t have added the cup of boiling water! Will not try it again! Maybe your recipe was hacked?!?

I’ve tried this recipe over and over and it NEVER disappoints!!! My whole family love it, and I even made it for my mother’s birthday. I make it with a chocolate ganache, ( pretty sure I spelled that wrong ) and we think it is delicious. Never found a chocolate cake I like more!! 🙂

OMG!!! My wife does most of the cooking in the house (only because she wants too, not because I can’t or won’t) 🙂 But I’ve baked this cake twice and she loves it!!! Now I’m stuck baking this cake for her and parties. 🙂 It’s soooo simple but soooo delicious. Thanks for the recipe. We actually buy the Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting, but it is a nice compliment to an already delicious cake.

This recipe looks really yummy!….If you ever want to try another one go to daisybrand.com for their sour cream chocolate cake and chocolate frosting!! To DIE for!!! Just made it last night and I use whatever sour cream I have on hand.

Here’s a great peanut butter cookie recipe. This sounds weird but trust me!! It’s called “Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies” 1 cup white sugar/1 cup peanut butter/1 egg. That’s it! Mix it all together and drop by teaspoons on your cookie sheet. Bake @350 for 8-10 mins. They will be very soft and tend to “LOOK” a little raw but after cooling completley these are amazing!! Of course I double the recipe! If you like you can do the fork criss cross thing on top before baking and these are also Gluten Free. Very Frugal by the way!!!

This cake is the best!!! I made it in a bundt pan, either I didn’t get it well enough greased or the pan was a bad choice because it stuck but the cake was so good, much better than store bought. Rich and light: my husband loves it 😀

I’m 12 :P. But I’ve done many bakes. I’ve baked cakes, cookies (I fail lol), etc… :). I always help my mom bake cakes and stuffs. The worst part is suprising them with a baked cookie and the cookie was a failure ^_^ it made me cry :(. But, you never do it right when you never experience failure ^_^

I found this recipe doing a general Google search because I wanted to try my hand at a simple chocolate cake from scratch [my first!]. I used the batter for cupcakes and baked for 20 minutes, and they came out perfect. My coworkers loved them, too. Thanks for this!

We are one day post Hurricane Sandy and although we were blessed to not lose power being in the woods and all, I am feeling we need a little treat-my husband and kids and I. Looking forward to this cake today!

Me and my son made this today and hands down the best chocolate cake I have had in years. Super easy and so very moist. I made a semi sweet scratch frostng to go on top that really balanced well. Thanks for the recipe, I am always looking for great scratch recipes to add to my arsenal.

If you like a fluffier cake you can try whipping the wet ingredients instead of just mixing them. Then you can mix the dry ingredients in normally. I also use cream instead of milk and butter in place of oil. It adds more calories but honestly, it is chocolate cake lol!

I’m baking my first homemade cake this Friday for my sister’s birthday party Saturday! I’m using this recipe for both the cake and frosting! I’m excited to make it!! I’m thinking it will be loved by the family!

Just put my choc cake in the oven, and it looks like its cooking from the center out? I hope it turns out good, first time doing it from scratch, husband is a cook/baker so got some pressure on me. Lol

Thanks for that tip, Bob, I will try that. I am changing my lifestyle so this favorite cake of mine does not get made as much. I would love to make it with more healthy ingredients. Then again, maybe just best to splurge once in awhile and face the fact that delicious cake is just not healthy 🙂

This cake was unbelievably good. I actually took it to a dessert party, untested and untried, and didn’t acknowledge that it was mine (just in case it was awful!) People were going nuts over it! I didn’t use your icing … the 5-1/2 cups of icing sugar kind of put me off, so I found another recipe online and adjusted it with less icing sugar and more cocoa. And it was just perfect.

I love this cake recipe and I use a chocolate pudding (or mousse box mix) frosting. It’s super simple and quite light. For the extra chocolatey goodness!! 😀 My favorite is adding crushed fruit on top of it. I’ve used blackberries, raspberries or strawberries and they are all delicious. yum yum.

I forgot to add that the above pudding frosting is made for the cake to be eaten in a day if you spread it on there. Otherwise what I do is make it and store it in a container, spooning it out onto the cake upon eating.

as for the exploding cake-use a cookie sheet to catch run-over but most of all, I found this makes enough batter to do (2) 9 inch rounds and one 8 inch-fill the pans NO MORE than 1/3, 1/4 really works best-if they run over they vent the gas and don’t rise properly-use this method for a fluffy cake!

Decided to make a cake for my wife’s birthday. I halved the recipe and used one 9×9 pan. Luckily I was reading through these comments and saw someone saying it went all over the oven. I had thought it looked pretty full in the pan… I checked it at about 17 minutes in and, yep!, it was right up to the edge. I got a cookie sheet under it and a few minutes later, it is indeed all over! I don’t care, I am sure it will be so good that it won’t matter a bit. And I get dibs on the drippings off the cookie sheet, too.

I find that interesting. I have made this cake for years and years and years 🙂 in many different size pans. My sister and I use to do cake decorating. I have put small amounts in cupcake, 6 inch and double plus in large sheet cake pans. Sorry for your failure, don’t give up. Too great of a cake not to make it.

I have been making this cake for years. It is from the Hershey’s Cocoa container. And I think the frosting may be too. It is called Hershey’s Easy Does it Recipe #11. But will say it is the best chocolate cake recipe ever.

Yes, best ever!!! This is my all time favorite Hershey’s Chocolate Cake. I only use a half batch of the frosting on the Hershey’s can. Dark chocolate cake with creamy icing, wonderful and very satisfying.

Like I said, I have been making this cake for years and I mean years! Every time I make it people love it! And I always tell them how ridiculously easy it is. My grandma when watching my sister and I make it once kept saying we must be doing something wrong because the batter was so thin 🙂 Yep, very thin batter. I mix the dry ingredients and keep in air tight containers so to have a homemade “boxed cake mix” on hand. Now with pinterest my favorite cake that I was so popular for might not be the surprise hit of events anymore 🙂

I love baking from scratch and have never enjoyed using the box recipe because I baked with my grandmother and mother from the very beginning. You were right that the batter looked a little runny, but it did pull through!!! So excited that I found such a delicious cake mix and an easy buttercream frosting. Thank you so much! Will definitely be making it again.

I made this cake for dessert last night to thank a friend for helping us out when we were away. My friend and everyone else that tried the cake LOVED it! They all said that it was the best chocolate cake that they have ever had!! Thank you.

Mix the first two ingredients according to the box, then add the sugar, last add the cool whip.

The above frosting is made for the cake to be eaten in a day if you spread it on there. Otherwise what I do is make it and store it in a container, spooning it out onto the cake upon eating. Here’s an example of what the cake and the frosting look like: https://i.imgur.com/ca0JyyB.jpg

Hello just want to say I made this recipe for the cake and I came to the baking power and found out I didn’t have any so I looked online what I could use in place of it. Some web sites told me how to make my own others said it can’t be substituted, then I found one site that said instead of baking power that u could use baking soda. So that’s what I did I thought what the heck do I have to loose so I put 1 in a half teaspoons baking soda in it and another 1 in a half teaspoon baking soda in it to substitute the baking power. Let me tell you the cake came out excellent. Thanks for the easy recipe I will be making this more often.

I made this cake over a year ago and it is fantastic! It has been a huge hit everywhere and is so much fun! Today I’ve made it for the sixth time! Everyone loves it and I’ve had people ask for the recipe. So incredibly happy that this is the chocolate cake I’ve stuck with. Thanks again so much! 🙂

How many people does this serve? I want to know because my mom’s birthday party is in two days and I think this might be the cake we’re looking for? Also, how good is the buttercream frosting, on a scale of one to ten? Her favorite frosting is butter cream so I want to make sure it’s a good one.

It’s a regular cake pan. So probably 15-20 depending on the size. The frosting is creamy… Just a little too rich for my personal taste. If she’s a fan, she’ll probably love it. Good luck! Let us know how it turns out!

I found your blog by doing a google search as well. I made this for my son’s birthday. This chocolate cake recipe is THE best I have ever made! Thank you! I am going to make it again right now for a baby shower!

This. I made this cake this evening for my spouse’s birthday tomorrow. Couldn’t have been easier. I was a bit concerned at how wet the batter was, but the cake turned out light and super moist. I actually cut the sugar down to 1 1/2 cups. And I only used 1 cup of cocoa in the frosting. A tip to stop your cakes from sticking… Before you do anything, trace the cake pan you’re going use on some wax paper and cut out a circle to line the bottom. I grease the pan before and after I put the wax paper in. Works like a charm every time 😉 Thanks again!

I just made this, it was super easy! I substituted 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar, and reduced the sugar (I used raw sugar) to 1 and 1/2 C. (1 3/4 cups total sweeteners) I used organic coconut oil for the vegitable oil. This just may be the best chocolate cake I have ever made! I topped it with homemade organic raspberry jam and real homemade whip cream. Yum!

I just want to say that this is a Hersey recipe from an old cookbook that I have had for 30 or more years. It is also on the Hersey web site. I find it all the time on the net that stuff is republished without the original people given credit. I know that you thought it was from allrecipes.com, but someone took the original and published it as their own. Given all that, it was a great cake then and still is

A 25cm round pan is equal to a 10 inch round pan. The recipe calls for the mix to go into TWO 9 inch round pans. So you definitely can not put all the batter into just one 25 cm pan. I’d put just half of it in there and then bake it for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Good morning. Looking for different “from scratch” recipes and came across your chocolate cake recipe. I’m curious, does this amount equate to that you would find in the typical box of cake mix. I have a few recipes up my sleeve using cake mix that don’t require any other added ingredients except for example, just a can of pumpkin puree. Using just the dry ingredients from your recipe above, do you think the chocolate cake mix would work the same? Trying very hard to eliminate as much processed and “junk added” food as possible and would love to add from scratch cake mix to my repertoire!

Made this cake for my sister-in-laws birthday a few days ago and oh my goodness! It was amazing! I made a big batch of chocolate mousse from scratch, took half of it and mixed with soft butter. The butter cream I put between the layers, and the rest of the mousse I mixed with chocolate chips and spread a thick layer all around the cake. It is hand down the best chocolate cake I’ve ever made! Reading the comments I now understand how common cake from a box is in the States, here in Sweden it’s very uncommon. I’ve actually NEVER made cake from a box… In school (homeschooling is illegal, and the basic curriculum is the same for public and private) we learn to bake already in 1:st grade. Thank you for a wonderful recipe!

Wish me luck…making this this weekend for my niece who asked for a chocolate cake for her birthday, although she specifically asked for cream cheese icing. Her mom wanted to do a box cake, but I convinced her to let me do scratch.

Today I was preparing a box cakefor my father-in-laws birthday & I decided to do a search for scratch chocolate cake. I saw yours & all the wonderful comments. I’m excited to try it! The next family birthday will be this recipe. The frosting recipe is the same as my mother’s. I want to get away from boxed items & this looks so easy. Thank you!

So I just made this cake last night and I boiled the water but forgot to put it in!!! Ahh!! I realized too late and the cakes were already in the oven so I just let it go and hoped for the best. They were amazing! It was like the love child of a brownie-cake couple. Today, however, I have noticed that it was drying up a bit in some areas, which the water probably helps with, so I will be adding the water for sure next time! Thanks!

I am making this cake as we speak, and I filled my pans half way and they both spude over in my oven and almost caused a fire. I then put them on a cookie sheet and they are still in the oven I hope they are as good as you say they are. I did exactly what your recipe asked for. I don’t know what happened!!!

With less than 4 hours notice, I was asked to make a cake for a birthday! This was the first recipe that came up on my google search for “chocolate cake from scratch”. The stars must have aligned because I had everything in my cupboard not to mention some ready made chocolate frosting I didn’t end up using for my Christmas baking. It’s in the oven as I type but my only concern is the 9inch spring form tin I used as I had no other tin! Watching it like a hawk! May this work or I shall be forced to get a store brought cake. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for this receipt is was so easy to do. My daughter who has Downs was begging to make a cake and I didn’t have any cake mix. This was the first one that came up when I googled it and she was able to make the cake by herself with a lot bit of help form me. I only helped with the measuring and putting in and out of the oven she did everything else herself and was so happy to be able to do this. She is only 8 years old. Again thank you for posting this receipt.

I am planning on making cupcake cones for the bake sale at my son’s school this week. The recipe calls for filling ice cream cones with prepared cake batter from a mix and then baking them. Since the batter for this cake recipe is kind of runny, will that affect my ability to use this recipe for the cupcake cones?

one of my many resolutions was to make a cake from scratch. On a whim I came across this recipe and made it within the hour. It. Was. DELISH!!! – so right you’re right. I held back on the cocoa like you suggested. Nothing compares to the texture of the cake. It’s amazing. Dense fudgey wonderness.

Thank you. I will keep this in my arsenal. I’m going to cool whip and strawberry this cake up again soon!.

This is the Hershey “Perfect Chocolate Cake” recipe, straight out of their cookbook/website. It’s a long time tried and true recipe that I’ve been using for years. The only thing I do differently is instead of boiling water, I use black coffee. It enriches the flavor of the chocolate. You can’t taste the coffee, it just tastes more chocolately. It really is the perfect chocolate cake and always turns out perfectly for me. I’ve made it so often over the years that I have the recipe memorized!

Wondering if I could use this recipe for brownie cookies? I usually use boxed cake mix for them but I like that I already have everything on this list at hand and I’ve been wanting to come up with a homemade recipe!

Tips or tricks? I know the oil/egg/water measurements are different just wondering if it would still taste as great?

I made this cake in a glass pan and it baked all the way through in a 9×13 glass pan in 35 minutes. Have not made the frosting and tasted it yet, but this is the test cake to the cake that I will be making for my daughter’s 10th birthday

I am so grateful you posted this recipe. I made a boxed recipe and needed a certain amount of cupcakes. Needless to say the box came up 3 short of the cupcakes that I needed. So I tried this and I was hesitant when I saw how watery it was. But like you said, it came out sooooooooo goooooood! I will never buy a chocolate box cake mix again. This is the new go to recipe. Thanks

Hi Cathy, I’ve been trying to bake this cake twice and follow the recipe trough and trough. I bake in 10 inch baking pan. I ended up failing. The second cake, after I baked for more than hour, it still sticky and runny, it didn’t even able to frost, Although the toothpick test showes a good result. But the bottom of the cake is hardened. Anyone know why it happening?

Jesse – are you using a 10×10 pan or a 10″ circle pan? If so, you’d want to use two of those. I’m not sure why you’re having those issues. Are all of your ingredients fresh? It could be your pan, or could be the oven even? Do you have any issues with your other baking adventures?

I loved this recipe! I made it for my husband’s birthday and it was sooooooooo good! We had just returned from a camping trip and didn’t have time to rub to the store and get a cake mix/frosting. Found your recipe and it saved the day!!!

I made this cake the other night because my kids have been begging for a cake. I refuse to by boxed cakes because I think they taste awful and I hate those horrible icing cakes you get at the store. This was a winner, I myself even ate the cake and I never touch the stuff, thank you for sharing!!

I just put this cake in the oven and your warning about not worrying as you mix in the boiling water was a great one. I was a bit worried as it did become quite runny until thoroughly mixed so thank you for that! I am looking forward to this in about a hour. 🙂

I haven’t made a cake from scratch in years. I ran across this recipe but used store bought icing. I wish I had made the icing too but the cake was awesome!! This will be my go to recipe from now on. Thanks so muvch for posting it. Oh, I used a bundt pan and it turned out great! Thanks again!!

My husband is always wanting chocolate cake but it’s hard to find the time! I made this on a whim last night (much to my husband’s joy) and I have to say, I was blown away. I knew it had to be an older recipe, given the amount of sugar in it, so I just decreased the sugar and kept everything else the same. (My daughter and I laughed at how terrible it looks when you add the boiling water) but popping out of the oven…oh my. It smelled amazing and once we finally got to frost and eat it, it was amazing. I had store bought fudge frosting that we decided to put on top, so I was glad that I decreased the sugar in the cake. It all balanced so perfectly. This will be our favorite cake from now on. It’s been so long since I have found a cake with such perfect texture- especially chocolate cake.

We tried it and I loved how the cake came out. It was very very delicious! However, I tried making my own confectioners sugar and I think I messed up with it to do the frosting… It was very crunchy with the sugar crystals 🤦‍♀️ I’ll have to stick with maybe store bought frosting instead or have confectioners sugar on hand for this.

I made this cake and it was exactly what I was looking for. Very moist! The icing was a perfect addition. I sprinkled some mini chocolate chips on top of the icing between the layers like one I had tasted at a bakery. This one tastes so much better. Loved it! I came back to print it for my recipe book and thought I would leave a review. I will have to try some more of your recipes. Thank you for sharing!

Awesome! I halved it, and cooked it in a 8×8 glass pan because it’s what I had. I left out enough batter for 4 cupcakes since it was a smaller pan, and put the oven at 325 instead of 350 and cooked it for 30-35 minutes with lots of oil to help it not stick to the glass. The runny batter really had me doubting but it really did turn out! I used almond milk and it turned out fine. Very moist. I used a different frosting recipe, but everyone loved this!

I made this cake and it was exactly what I was looking for. Very moist! The icing was a perfect addition. I sprinkled some mini chocolate chips on top of the icing between the layers like one I had tasted at a bakery. This one tastes so much better. Loved it! I came back to print it for my recipe book and thought I would leave a review. I will have to try some more of your recipes. Thank you for sharing!

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